In the final photo - aptly so - we see the Jews being driven out of Oswiecim to one of the Ghettos mentioned in the caption. The neighbors are watching from the windows, they seem to be OK with it, we can maybe even detect a smile on some faces. If you'll look at the building on the left you'll see a sign for a bicycle shop, with the name Izak Hutterer. Some of you may have heard of the famous Bobover Chossid Reb Shaul Hutterer. He lived in Antwerp after the war and passed away not so long ago. He would come to NY to daven for the amud in the Bobover shul. He was from Katowiec but he had an uncle in Ushpitzin by the name of Yitzchok. I would assume this was his shop.
A story about the Rebbe Reb Shimon Sholom (R' Shimme'le) of Amshinov who spent Rosh Hashonoh 1940 in Vilna. He eventually escaped via Russia to Japan and Shanghai, China. Agav, the idea that he fasted two days on Y"K 1941 because he was in doubt - due to his crossing the International Dateline - is a myth. He was by that time already in mainland Shanghai. What he did about Shabbos is another story, which we'll leave for a later time.
א כוח"ט און א גוט געבענטשט יאר
Most bochurim who ever opened a קובץ שיעורים, even if only by mistake, couldn't help but read the fascinating תולדות, or Hakdomoh, written by his son, the late Reb Simcha Wasserman. The story of the passing of Reb Elchonon הי"ד al kiddush haShem is one that is better than most mussar seforim, so to speak. If you haven't yet, take a few moments in the future to do so. With him in the Ghetto, and maybe also in the same hiding place, was the Mashgiach of Slabodka, Harav Avrohom Grodzinski, הי"ד, brother in lw of Reb Yaakov Kamenetzki; they were both married to daughters of Reb Bere Hirsh Heller. Reb Avrohom was not taken to be killed that day, being that he was hiding in the attic. His son Reb Yitzchok, zol gezunt zein, recounts the story of what happened on that terrible day. Yud Aleph Tammuz marks 75 years since REW was murdered.
From the Hebrew Yated Ne'eman.
תודה להמשלח
